In part 1, we showed you that folks are giving up on long, slow cardio workouts and switching to short, burst exercise sessions that include group training, challenge-type workouts you do on a weekly basis, and fat burning athlete workouts.

In Part 2 of the 7 hottest trends for fat loss, you’ll learn here about training for personal bests, alternative interval training workouts, the secret to success of the new generation of transformation contests, and the truth about shorter, no-cardio workouts. So let’s continue with 4 more of the hottest trends in fat loss.

1) You’ll Start Training for Performance, Not Just your Physique

By trying to achieve a new “Personal Best” in every workout, you’ll improve your performance. And it’s almost impossible to improve your performance without changing your body and losing fat at the same time.

I’ve always asked my client to hit one new personal best each workout. For example, in a recent workout I asked one of my female clients to get 15 pushups instead of the 14 pushups she did last week. With one of my male clients, we increased the speed of his interval training by 2% so he did his best fat burning interval workout ever.

There are dozens of ways you can set a personal best in each workout. You can do more reps with the same weight, you can increase the weight, you do more reps with a bodyweight exercise, you can hold an ab plank exercise longer than last time, or you can do your intervals at a faster speed or for a slightly longer time at the same speed.

Each time you improve your performance, you’ll start burning more fat and sculpting your muscle better than your last workout.

2) Alternative Interval Training Workouts

At first, people were so bored of long, slow cardio that any type of interval training workout was new and exciting. But now some folks have gotten used to doing interval training on cardio machines and want something new (even though they may still be getting great fat loss from cardio machine intervals).

So this year, you’ll see more and more trainers having clients do alternative interval training workouts. Some of the most popular include using the Kettlebells for swings and snatches. For example, a Kettlebell interval workout might require you to do 30 seconds of kettlebell swings followed by 30 seconds of rest, and you’ll repeat that 6 times.

You’ll also see a lot of folks returning to medicine ball exercises for use in their interval training. Men’s Health magazine recently put together a Medicine Ball Challenge workout and that has sparked the interest in old-school medicine ball exercises.

You can do your medicine ball intervals similar to the Kettlebell workout described above, or you can do a series of total body medicine ball exercises in a circuit.

Speaking of circuit training, I use a lot of bodyweight circuits to replace traditional interval training in my client’s workouts. This is great for folks who train at home without a cardio machine to use for traditional intervals.

In a bodyweight circuit, choose 3 lower body and 3 upper body exercises and alternate between lower and upper body exercises until you have done all 6 exercises. Then rest 1 minute and repeat as much as you can in 15 minutes.

3) Transformation Contests with Social Support

The classic 12-week “Before and After” Transformation Contests are making a big comeback on the Internet, but with one unique twist. The contests are now including a huge component of social support offered online in membership website forums.

Both men and women are finally succeeding with their fat loss goals because they have other men and women on the forums supporting and encouraging them when times are tough. Overall, you’ll see even more fat loss forums pop-up but the best will be combined with a Transformation Contest.

4) We’ll Continue Doing Shorter Workouts With Fewer Machines, No Calorie Counting, and No Visits to the Cardio Confessional

The last 10 years have been groundbreaking in terms of fat loss workouts. There has been a huge shift away from cardio and over to short, burst workouts that rely on bodyweight exercises, fewer machines, and workouts you can do at home.

Because of the recession and financial restrictions, more men and women are going to be working out at home or in the park, but by including all of the other trends mentioned in this article, they will still be able to lose fat and sculpt their muscles.

Plus, more and more research is exposing the lies of calorie counters on cardio machines. Most cardio equipment OVER-estimates the number of calories you burn in a workout by 30% (or more!). So folks are getting fooled into thinking cardio is more effective than it really is for fat loss.

Plus, you are realizing that you can’t overeat on the weekend and then expect to jump on the cardio machines (the cardio confessional as I like to call it) and burn off all those calories. Again, cardio is being exposed as an ineffective exercise method for fat loss.

As more and more people find out that cardio machines are lying to them, you’ll see more folks dropping out of commercial gyms and saving money to workout at home with bodyweight, dumbbell and kettlebell exercises.

But if you include challenge-type workouts, combined with entering a Transformation Contest full of social support, you will be shocked to see the results you can get at home while saving time and money, and avoiding the hassles of commercial gyms.

Those are 4 more of the top fat loss trends this year that will help you burn fat faster!